| News Details |
| India and Afghanistan: A New Phase of Strategic Relations | | 
By Fatima Baloch
India has long-standing historical ties with Afghanistan, consistently supporting Afghan governments in healthcare, education, development, infrastructure, and foreign diplomacy to safeguard Afghanistan’s sovereignty and security. These efforts have always been directed toward the welfare of ordinary Afghans.
To further deepen bilateral relations, Afghan Foreign Minister Amir Khan Muttaqi visited India from October 9 to 15, 2025. His objectives included strengthening ties, enhancing regional cooperation, expanding humanitarian assistance, and establishing a joint trade committee. This marked the first high-level visit from the Taliban government to India since its takeover in August 2021. The visit also emphasized Hindu–Muslim brotherhood, with Mr. Muttaqi visiting Islamic institutes such as Deoband and meeting prominent Indian Muslim scholars. Pakistan—long accustomed to playing the “Muslim card” against India—was angered, yet forced to watch as Taliban-led Afghanistan pursued constructive ties with New Delhi. During the visit, a desperate Pakistan Army conducted air strikes in Afghanistan on October 14–15, 2025, in an attempt to compel the Tehreek-e-Taliban Afghanistan (TTA) to fight Pakistan’s war against the Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) and the Baloch Liberation Army (BLA).
Soon after, amid suspended Afghan–Pakistan trade and Kabul’s search for permanent alternatives to Pakistani routes, Afghan Minister of Industry and Commerce Nooruddin Azizi led a business delegation to India. These meetings are expected to yield concrete steps toward establishing industries and production centers in Afghanistan. India’s support in medicine production, healthcare infrastructure, and the construction of refineries and industrial facilities across sectors would be invaluable. Pakistan is estimated to lose about $150–160 million annually in exports due to the Afghan trade block if the current border closure continues through the end of 2025.
Meanwhile, Pakistan’s recent aggression—air strikes in Kabul and other cities, coupled with the forcible expulsion of refugees—was aimed at pressuring the Taliban to fight Pakistan’s ideological adversaries, the TTP and BLA. The TTA understands that to prevent U.S. influence and Pakistani military interference in Afghan affairs—and to avoid internal fragmentation—it must support the TTP’s goal of establishing an Islamic, pro-Afghanistan government in Pakistan and back the Baloch struggle for a Greater Afghanistan, historically known as Loy Afghanistan.
Pakistan’s aggression and its blocking of Indo-Afghan access and trade routes across the Durand Line underscore its destructive role in Afghanistan since 1973. For decades, Islamabad has interfered in Afghan political affairs—supporting anti-government factions as a proxy of the U.S. and Saudi Arabia in the 1980s, fueling the Afghan civil war of 1992–94, and ultimately turning Afghanistan into its “strategic depth” during 1996–2001. These internal wars left Afghanistan devastated.
In contrast, India has consistently played a constructive role—supporting Afghanistan in healthcare, infrastructure, and development. India also developed Iran’s Chabahar port to maintain Indo-Afghan trade and ensure Indian product access to Afghanistan and beyond into Central Asia. With the Afghanistan–Pakistan border closed, India’s assistance in building Afghanistan’s industry and manufacturing capacity is essential. Mobilizing Indian technical teams to help produce medicines and healthcare products would directly strengthen Afghanistan’s resilience.
Since the Taliban’s return to power on August 15, 2021, under the Doha Agreement, the TTP has been emboldened to replicate their success. Afghanistan—home to Pashtun, Tajik, Uzbek, Hazara, and Baloch tribes—has found relative stability under Taliban rule. Unlike monarchist, communist, or externally imposed regimes, the Taliban’s governance aligns more closely with tribal and Islamic values. They have curbed corruption, restored law and order, ensured justice under Islamic law, and reasserted sovereignty—earning legitimacy, especially in rural areas. Recent clashes with remnants of foreign-backed militias have further boosted their popularity.
India should now take the bold step of formally recognizing the Taliban government, as Russia has already done, and deepen coordination with Kabul. Recognition, coupled with economic and industrial cooperation, will stabilize Afghanistan while reinforcing India’s strategic interests.
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Conclusion and Recommendations
• Economic cooperation: India must assist war-torn Afghanistan in medicine production, education, and industrial development across all sectors. This will create jobs, reduce poverty, and strengthen Afghanistan’s economy.
• Military and security support: Fragile ceasefires brokered by Qatar and Turkey have failed to contain TTP and BLA insurgencies. India must provide Afghanistan with military hardware, air defense systems, and financial aid to ensure stability.
• Countering Pakistan’s aggression: Pakistan’s attempts, backed by China and Turkey, to pressure Kabul into fighting the TTP and BLA are unlikely to succeed. The Taliban will not fight their ideological brethren, and India must prepare for the possibility of war between Afghanistan and Pakistan.
• Strategic contingency planning: India should prepare to reclaim Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK) before a potential collapse of the Pakistani state, thereby ensuring contiguity with Afghanistan and securing direct land access for trade with Central Asia.
• Nuclear security: If extremist groups like the TTP seize control of nuclear assets, the threat becomes exponentially more dangerous. The U.S. and Western powers must act decisively to neutralize Pakistan’s arsenal before it falls into jihadist hands.
• Support for Balochistan and Greater Afghanistan: India should formally recognize the Taliban government and engage secular Baloch nationalists—especially BLA leadership—to support the establishment of a free, independent Balochistan. Simultaneously, India should encourage Afghanistan to absorb Pakistan’s Pashtun province (Khyber Pakhtunkhwa), merging it into a Greater Afghanistan.
Final Thought: India has no option but to resume Operation Sindoor 2.0—in support of Greater Afghanistan and a free Balochistan. This bold strategy will not only stabilize Afghanistan but also secure India’s long-term regional interests.
About the Author
Fatima Baloch is a senior geopolitical and regional expert who writes extensively on Afghanistan, Balochistan, and India, with a focus on strategic dynamics and regional security.
(Disclaimer: The views, observations and opinions expressed in above write up of Scoop News are strictly author's own. Scoop News does not take any onus or liability for the veracity, accuracy, validity, completeness, suitability of any of information in the above given write up. The information, facts or figures appearing in the write up in no way manifest the position, standpoint or stance of Scoop News and the Scoop News does not assume any encumbrance or answerability of the same. All disputes are subject to the exclusive jurisdiction of competent Courts and Forums in Jammu City Only)
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